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Monday, March 28, 2016

Marie heard the shots. She tried to stand but her head felt dizzy as she struggled to get to her feet. She brushed her tangled long brown hair from her face as she grabbed for the table in front of her. Her slender hand trembled. She could fill a trickle of blood rolling down the back of her neck and she winced in pain while she straightened her posture upright. With a quick scan of her body it appeared she did not seem to have any broken bones, or wounds below her shoulders. Gently she raised her hand towards the back of her aching skull. With her finger tips she felt the gash. An opening the size of a silver dollar. She gasped as she pulled her blood soaked hand away. She was injured and knew she needed help fast. But, she also feared what might be waiting for her in the hallway. She tried reasoning with yourself to fight her fear. Her training in the Reserves had taught her survival techniques if she should find herself in difficult situations. She tried desperately to concentrate on what she had been taught about traumas to the head.

She scanned the room from where she stood too afraid to move and not quite sure where to go. Her brown eyes followed a small trail of blood that led out into the hallway. The lab room was a mess, with carts turned over and broken glass shattered all around her. It seemed whatever had attacked Marie was gone now. Her mind slowly came back to the gun shot she had heard. Frightening images flashed through her mind. She reached in her lab coat pocket for her cell phone. Eve's number lit up in front of her.

Before Marie had joined the Copeland group almost 3 years ago, she worked in hospice care. Death was not something new to her, but, violence was something else. Even though she trained in the reserves for self defense right after college, she had never actually encountered an attack. During her time of service she did not deploy over seas. Marie had remained safely in the untied states close to her family while on active duty, helping to train new recruits. After her Mother passed away several years ago from cancer Marie decided to make a career move towards medical research. With no where to move with in her hospice care career, the Copeland group had attracted her with their attractive salary and excellent health care package. Since Marie had majored in Health Sciences while in college, She felt this was a golden opportunity to utilize the knowledge she had gained in college and join Copeland's team.

Like all Copeland's employees that worked at the research facility, she also believed the work they were doing was in efforts to help find cures for crippling diseases. The center in Hill city was more then just watching cells grow in the laboratory, and that excited her. She was well aware that the study involved human trials of new medicines with great promise. What Marie and most of her fellow employees did not know was the extent of just how far Copeland and its investors were willing to go to get faster results in obtaining FDA approval to introduce new drugs to the market. .

What Copeland laboratory had also failed to do was step forward in admitting their wrong doing and produce a plan of action of safety for their medical staff and the volunteers, should side effects produce fatalities. Instead six months ago, a secret cover up plan had been born. A plan that had employees like Eve Porter, Marie Olson and everyone else involved at the Center in danger.